Friend collecting. David makes the point that friends and followers aren’t necessarily a measure of engagement or value. You can buy them. You can collect them with software-driven scripts and special tools.

Asking people to “like” your content-free Facebook page. What’s to like when there is nothing there? Put the content up first, then engage.

Requiring app installation to consume a message. For example, that greeting card that requires you install something.

Auto DMs on Twitter. He’s referring to the practice of setting your Twitter to automatically send a direct message to every new follower, thanking them, or — worse still — asking them to buy something from you.

Happy Birthdays on Facebook. David says: “Only typing ‘Happy Birthday’ is truly the least you could do outside of doing nothing.” And he adds that there is no extra credit for remembering when Facebook is reminding you.

Sharing without consumption. “We all have the ability to share any piece of content without looking past the headline.” Read it first.

Photo overdose of your kids and your wedding. “Your kid may be cute to you, but you’re the parent and that’s how you’re supposed to feel. The rest of us are not supposed to feel that way.”

Posting bad photos.

Follow Fridays. Hmmm. Honestly, I’ve been follow Fridayed and I’ve liked it. I thought of it as mutual back scratching. The #FF in a tweet followed by listing handles is a recommendation to your followers that they follow the people you list. But David points out that it’s really about getting the attention of the people you list. I think it’s kind of faded as a behavior anyway.

Automatically cross-posting contentless information across social networks. This should be higher on the list, in my opinion. Having foursquare post when you check in, or Spotify post what you’re listening to, for example: That’s just clutter. That stuff gets in the way. Don’t do that.

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1 thought on “10 Business Social Media Mistakes to Avoid”

Thanks for the props on my article. BTW, to clarify on #FF, my irritation is that it’s a context-less recommendation. No one says to you, “Pay attention to Phil, Susan, and George,” with no explanation. But we’ve accepted that as a normal way of recommending people on Twitter. Add some context and it wouldn’t be so irritating.